To no one's surprise, I loved it. It's a brilliantly structured documentary split into three sections about Arnold Schwarzenegger's life with him coming in and talking about it. The first hour deals with his early life leading up to his body building days, the 2nd hour is about his acting career, and the 3rd hour is his term as governor to current day. It's one of those that kinda feels like a vanity celebrity documentary but knowing that Schwarzenegger didn't help produce this gives the documentary some cred. It doesn't shy away from his many controversies and he doesn't really offer the common excuses for them. They do a good job using a lot of the old footage that has been lost or used in his other documentary with reenactments that fill out the story better. I thought the first hour and the 3rd hour were the strongest and had more to say and unpack, I kinda wish they had made the "movie career" section longer. Overall, it's probably the most comprehensive doc about Arnold that shows why he's one of the most engaging and unique celebrities there is. 4/5
This was mostly okay, it's definitely a step down from Kelly Reichardt's last film First Cow. Where the movie excels the most is the calm zen-like nature of the filmmaking that you expect coming in. That being said, the movie almost works at a disadvantage because it's set around the Portland art scene so you do follow artists who got pretentious tendencies. The plot is somewhat predictable and cliched and the moment they introduced the pigeon into the movie, you kinda know what the overall theme is. I thought Hong Chau and Michelle Williams gave some pretty decent performances and they were interesting when the conflict evolves in the 3rd act. Overall, while it's got some great filmmaking, the story didn't really speak to me as First Cow did. 3/5
The Flash baby and the American Sniper baby should just throw hands and prove to everyone who's the real fake baby.
It's truly a mixed bag of nuts but I didn't hate it. The biggest shocker is the movie is actually about Barry Allen and Ezra Miller's performance(s) was actually pretty decent. While I don't like the idea of using the Flashpoint story for the first-ever live-action Flash movie, they do a somewhat decent job with it especially when it comes to the emotional moments. It's also way more comedic than I was expecting which wasn't a bad thing. The first hour of the movie minus the "mission" was actually entertaining and well suited for the story. Much like No Way Home and Doctor Strange MoM, there are parts of the movie that really work for me, but once it brings in the broader aspects of the story where it shifts to cameos, it loses focus.
Michael Keaton's return to play Batman was fun as expected and what he does here reminded me so much of Sean Connery in The Rock. I thought Sasha Calle did a pretty good job as Kara but in the context of everything else, it almost feels like they made a last-minute decision on not using Cavill for a similar role that was in Flashpoint. And the multiverse cameos that got here were fun but obviously odd and the last one before the post-credit scene was genuinely exciting to see. The downside of the movie really goes down to the revamp events of Man of Steel, the terrible DCEU foundation, and the CGI that reminds me of cinematic trailers for PS3 games. The CGI is so distracting but constant you wonder if it was a deliberate move. It's without a doubt a big reason why Spider-Verse has dominated the multiverse race because animation gets away with a lot and you buy into it much more easily. Overall, I can't say I disliked it but I can see why most people will hate it because of the distracting CG or the Ezra Miller problem. It's a very baseline film with interesting moments in between that hopefully is a sign of the end of the DCEU. 3/5
They definitely extracted interesting characters from the script and left them for dead.
The Russo Brothers and Sam Hargrave return to what is essentially a demo reel of stunt and action set pieces. Where the first Extraction kinda had an interesting plot with a couple of complex characters, this mostly abandons it for longer action scenes. It's definitely a movie where they thought of the 20-minute "one shot take" and wrote a "story" around it. The one-shot take itself is probably the only scene that's worth checking out and even then it's odd they kinda shot their wad so early in the movie. Chris Hemsworth as Tyler Rake feels pretty bland as a character whenever he's not kicking ass in between. Golshifteh Farahani kinda takes place in the Randeep Hooda role from the first movie, where she's the only interesting character that doesn't get enough credit and gets overshadowed by everything else. Overall, it's yet another of these movies like The Gray Man, The Mother, and Ghosted which you go to if you only want to watch heavy action with dull characters and a paper-thin plot. 2.5/5
The power of the O’Reilly Auto Parts theme song knows no bounds.
It's essentially a horror slasher comedy that becomes a social commentary about blackness and horror tropes. At first, you don't know where it's headed quality-wise because this could have easily been another Marlon Waynes/Tyler Perry horror comedy where all the jokes are painfully awful or something more prestigious like a Jordan Peele movie, but here you kinda get somewhere in between. Dewayne Perkins who's the co-writer and one of the stars is pretty much the magic sauce for this movie. The premise pretty much takes Texas Chainsaw, Evil Dead, and mainly Scream and blends them together, but it knows that the commentary, characters, and comedy are where its strengths lie. The chemistry between the cast is what really made the movie not terrible. They even use terrible old nerd stereotypes to their advantage and I thought Jermaine Fowler was funny and he gets funnier as it goes along. That being said, if you're looking for horror it's not really here, it operates more on a Scary Movie mode than a Get Out mode. Overall, it's fun for a mostly middle of the road black horror comedy. 3/5
I didn't expect this movie to open with an 18th-century episode of Epic Rap Battle with violins and Mozart but here we are.
It's a decent music biopic about George de Bologne that felt it was aimed at a younger crowd who don't normally watch period-piece dramas. The script is mostly a by-the-numbers biopic that deals with his rise to fame as a biracial musician in late 18th-century France and what ultimately happened to his fame. Kelvin Harrison Jr. continues to be such an underrated actor and here he's no different. He really takes command of the role whenever the movie centers solely on him which is most of the movie. Samara Weaving is also fantastic in this and it was nice seeing her in a non-contemporary role. That being said, it's one of those movies where the trailer kinda spoils every exciting moment in the movie, and even then the movie kinda goes into familiar territory with the script even though I enjoyed watching this. I will say I thought the ending scene was really well done with how they used diegetic and non-diegetic music at the same time. Overall, I thought it was good and it's the kind of movie that is gonna play well on cable for years to come. 3/5
If Jennifer Lawrence fought like that in The Hunger Games, she would have won every year.
This was unexpectedly really good where you do get your raunchy rated R sex comedy as advertised, but you also get a really sweet coming-of-age drama in the middle of it. There's definitely another version of this movie where it's just the low-hanging fruit of explicit jokes and nothing more but the script does a good job balancing the story and the characters. It really felt like a throwback to the Apatow era when the rated r comedy had some substance to them like Forgetting Sarah Marshall. It's also smartly written and it's self-aware of the subject matter at hand. Jennifer Lawrence also elevates the material by really letting loose but also bringing it back for dramatics. I also really liked how they played the Andrew Barth Feldman character where don't play him like a total loser with zero social skills instead, he does bring personality and most shocking of all, makes you care for a white rich kid from the coast. Overall, I had fun with it. All in all, it makes you nostalgic for when rated r comedies especially when they put some effort into them. 3.5/5
Yeah, I'm pretty confident after watching this that Wes Anderson has seen Prometheus and Bob from Kablam!
Fun movie. As usual with Wes Anderson, it's a visually stunning movie that showcases the best in set design, costumes, and cinematography. For this, it's a fun meta-narrative that takes place in between both the real world that's set in the 50s and the fictional stage play set in a pop-style, Southwestern region-inspired Asteroid City. It's got a stacked cast as usual and I thought most of the main characters got their moment to shine. Jason Schwartzman and Scarlett Johansson probably got the most character development out of everyone. The fourth-wall-breaking moments are probably the best part of the movie. As much as I enjoyed most of it, for whatever reason, it kept me wanting more out of the story and the characters. I thought it should have kept going a little longer and the humor didn't really quite land as well as his previous films. Overall, it's really good but I wished it was better. 3.5/5
A pretty solid sequel that does a good job of creating a more comic book feel to the series. The way it's directed also changed from the first one where this is more in line with Deadpool than it does with John Wick. It's full of blood, gore, action, and funny moments. It even ends in a way that sets up for another sequel which also felt very comicbooky. I thought Lulu Wilson was excellent here and she really elevates the material. I thought Seann William Scott who's playing the big bad was bringing another energy to the movie that I was expecting because the other guys they have here with him were pretty surface level stooges. Overall, it's a fun movie that I thought did a better job of finding its tone than the previous movie. 3/5
Imagine Goodfellas...but if it was a Sebastian Maniscalco standup special.
Pretty rough. You know when your family comedy is a dud when it's 80% of a bad voice over narration from your main character. It's one of these culture clash comedies where they mostly go for the most obvious joke with surface level stereotype characters. Sebastian Maniscalco is basically doing his stand up bits for the majority of the movie who is basically the Italian Dane Cook. Robert De Niro had a few moments that worked for me but otherwise, he's flying on autopilot. I usually love Leslie Bibb but she doesn't have a whole lot going on for her and her rich family and her problems are so generic. It's also one of these where the trailer shows you the whole movie. Overall, while I didn't completely hate it, it's still pretty awful. It's exactly the kind of comedy that is meant for older people who only watch sitcoms from TV Land. 1.5/5
This was a wild erotic bottle thriller that kinda took me by surprise. It's a movie solely built on the chemistry and the performances between Margaret Qualley and Christopher Abbott. The movie does a great job getting you immediately captived by Margaret Qualley's character and she really leveled up as a performer because she chewed every bit of scenery in that hotel room. It also does a good job of keeping you invested as the story evolves because it does feel like a well-made stage play. Overall, it's really great and I'm excited to see what Margaret Qualley does next. 4/5
I knew letterboxd would go nuts when the movie dropped the Eternal Sunshine mention.
Undeniably phenomenal. Celine Song was able to create a romantic drama that explores themes of longing, the past, culture, long-distance relationships, and the one who got away and does it in a way that feels incredibly realistic and true to real life even down to how the film ends. It definitely reminds you of other filmmakers like Wong Kar-wai and Richard Linklater with how they treat these characters and the story. Greta Lee and Teo Yoo gave two incredible performances and they do a great job instantly buying into their internal emotions where they say a lot without having to say a single word. The cinematography by Shabier Kirchner is utterly incredible and the score is also really well done. This does a classic Hollywood move where they bring back the romanticism of New York City and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot more people visit Brooklyn Bridge Park to see the carousel just because of this movie. Overall, it's basically a future Criterion classic. 5/5
Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Michaela Watkins playing sisters is probably the most accurate casting in a while.
It's a decent marriage drama with a bit of a sitcom element thrown in with the premise. Nicole Holofcener does what she usually does best by creating low stakes dramas set in NY that try to get a bit more depth to the characters with a light tone. To me, some moments really worked like the scenes between Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Michaela Watkins. Other times, the movie gets very "first world problems" with how they deal with the issues. As much as I like Owen Teague, they don't really give him much to do here. The couples therapy scenes with Tobias Menzies who plays the therapist was probably the biggest highlight of the movie. It definitely felt like you were watching an old sitcom for HBO. Overall, it's fun but disposable dramady. 3/5
In great Indiana Jones tradition, this movie will leave you wondering how that fedora was glued onto his head.
This was not as bad as I thought it going to be based on the trailers. While you can notice almost immediately that it was directed by Mangold and not Spielberg, I thought the change of style wasn't as distracting especially when you get the train sequence. The de-aging effects were pretty impressive when it was quick shots of Harrison Ford, otherwise, you notice a weird rubber effect when the shot lingers too much on it. The first act does a pretty good job setting up Indiana living in 1969 and initially meeting with Phoebe Waller-Bridge's character. What really bogs the movie down for me is the repetitive action scenes that kinda take up the middle part of the movie. They don't really slow down once he leaves New York, but I will say I thought the scene where they meet Mads Mikkelsen in Tangier was fun. It also unsurprisingly goes for the nostalgia callbacks to previous films and that can get grating at times. All these Indiana Jones movies usually delve into the fantastical elements and this one makes no exception. What they do in the 3rd act kinda saved the movie for me which will probably divide most fans who will either buy into it or find it ludicrous. Overall, pretty fun. It's a movie that kinda does the checklist of what people want in an Indiana Jones but also does something unexpected at the end. 3/5
Silly me for even doubting David Lowery. This was actually a delightful live-action Disney adaptation which is rare these days. This is more in line with Lowery's other Disney film Pete's Dragon than it does with something like Robert Zemeckis's Pinocchio. Where this does stand out is how the story was told and how they set up the themes of growing up and growing old. If I have any complaints it would be they really rush you into the story of Peter Pan welcoming Wendy to Neverland, I feel like there's a longer cut that does have more setup in the beginning. The trailers don't do a good job but it's visually incredible with its cinematography and it's very much a David Lowery film. Alexander Molony, Ever Anderson, and Jude Law all had some solid performances. Overall, while Benh Zeitlin's Wendy still remains my favorite adaptation of Peter Pan, this one is pretty high up. 3.5/5
You know you're old, washed, and divorced when you start eating instant oatmeal dry.
It was just okay. This tries to continue the story from Insidious 2 where Patrick Wilson and Ty Simpkins's memories were repressed of what happened to them. So what we get is a memory loss horror film where the events and beings start coming back to them 9 years later. I think the movie is way more concerned about the father-son relationship drama than it does trying to make an effective horror film. Patrick Wilson directs this one and you can imminently tell this does not have the James Wan signature horror stamp. The scares are obvious jump scares that are pretty disposable and sometimes have nothing to do with the plot. If I have any real positive things I can say about this movie is Ty Simpkins can hold his own as a leading actor. I thought the scenes between him and Sinclair Daniel worked really well. The movie tries to deliver some closure and they do it in the most obvious ways and a lot of the time it feels very MCU where they tie everything together. But overall, this was just fine. 2.5/5
It's a con artist thriller that worked almost too well until it didn't. I do love how the movie starts out with Justice Smith and Briana Middleton who act like they're in a romcom and the initial switch-up that takes you by surprise. Their performances were easily the best part of the movie, especially with Briana Middleton. The movie does a lot of hopping around between each character and how they parse each piece of information. Once they introduce Sebastian Stan and Julianne Moore into the plot, the con thriller section got really interesting. I thought it was shot really well and it's got some really nice music. That being said, the movie kinda hinges on the 3rd act and where they go with it was a bit silly and super melodramatic. It thought it was trying something smart but in reality, it was predictable. Overall, it's a really well-made crime thriller that unfortunately didn't land the plane. 3/5
Maybe Bert Kreischer only works when he's on a late night talk show for 10 minutes.
After seeing Mafia Mamma and About My Father this year, it is almost like someone conjured up this movie that blends both of them together. This movie is basically about Bert Kreischer's stand-up story about being associated with the Russian mob brought to life in a silly over-the-top action comedy. Mark Hamill plays his dad but I still have no idea what he was doing here and what they got him to do aside from the father/son storyline. And much like Mafia Mamma, they don't shy away from the gore. There's a flashback section that kinda worked and that's mostly because they got Jimmy Tatro to play his younger self. While a lot of the comedy falls flat for me, I thought the Iva Babić character was interesting enough and you almost kinda want to see a version of the mob movie where it's just about her. Overall, while I didn't really hate it, this was a mostly forgettable comedy. 2/5
Really good despite copying from the best (David Fincher's Zodiac). It centers around the two female journalists that investigated and broke the news about the Boston Strangler murders. Not only the movie takes some notes from Zodiac on how to make this kind of movie, they even used the same color grading and even the same basement scene (although not nearly as haunting). I thought Keira Knightley was great here despite her lack of a Boston accent and Carrie Coon who was born to do these kinds of roles was incredible. Matt Ruskin does a good job of keeping the momentum throughout and I like how they keep the dynamic between the two leads interesting. Overall, I really dug it. It's a shame that this went to Hulu because it's definitely a movie that would be released in theaters in the fall. 3.5/5
*Tiktok voice* The man was so dumb that he typed Venus into Google and was confused that there's a planet named after it.
Thoroughly surprised at how much I enjoyed this and I really shouldn't be surprised when I found out at the end it was directed by Jaume Balagueró who made the [Rec] movies. This was essentially a crazy cosmic horror film in the vein of Suspiria mixed with a crime thriller about a go-go dancer on the run from the local mob. They do a great job running these two seemingly parallel stories until they interact in a very wild way. The movie is almost built around Ester Expósito who plays Lucía and she really delivers a great performance that you don't see coming. And they also do a great job setting up the stakes and the emotional drama between the main two sisters and the little girl. Once sh** hits the fan, the movie takes a wild left turn and it really ties everything well together in final girl fashion. Overall, a solid cosmic horror action thriller. 3.5/5
This was mediocre in the most obvious of ways. It's a remake of House Party that is actually an ego stroke for Lebron James even though the movie tries to roast him. I will say I thought the first 10-20 minutes were somewhat promising but it quickly delves into lame jokes, references to other movies, and celebrity cameos. It's like This is the End but the humor was very surface level stuff. I thought Jacob Latimore and Tosin Cole were okay but it's the only person who left an impression was Kid Cudi who kinda steals the movie. But overall, this was kinda forgettable. 2/5
You know it's a Gen Z movie when right before a character dies and all he said was, "Bruh."
Really liked it but I didn't completely love it. It's an interesting animated movie that takes medieval fantasy and cyberpunk sci-fi and melds them together. I thought the movie started off pretty stiff but it gradually becomes a better movie, especially in the last act. While I thought the main plot of the murder chase was pretty obvious and clunky, the main two characters seem to be what the movie really cares about. I thought the dynamic between Riz Ahmed and Chloe Grace Moretz's characters was really cool to see and the obvious LGBT themes they touch on. I just didn't totally feel the animation itself despite the great designs, I thought it would have looked better if it was completely 2D like the Cartoon Saloon animated movies. And as for the humor, it didn't completely land for me. Overall, it's a really solid movie that I know will have a cult following. Also, 20 minutes of credits is wild. 3/5
It's a supernatural comedy that is overstuffed with overexplained subplots and side characters that don't really do much. On paper, this seems like a slam dunk for Christopher Landon who's done a great job with the Happy Death Day movies and Freaky, but this just feels like he was given too much money and not enough restraint. It's a movie that doesn't know if it's a Nickeloden-style ghost movie with some melodrama or if it's an action thriller about hunting a ghost. It's also kinda bizarre to have someone like David Harbour and not let him say anything throughout the movie. Jahi Di'Allo Winston and Isabella Russo are pretty much the leads in discovering and interacting with ghost David Harbour and it's the only time the movie really works. I thought Anthony Mackie had a few good scenes but it just felt like a different movie when he's on. The movie really suffers from being too long and stretching out the concept and the melodrama. Overall, it's a mixed bag but not really all that entertaining. 2/5
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